Woman fired after donating kidney to boss

[chaos]

I think organs should be donated with no expectation of anything in return; however, the woman asserts she was fired because she complained about not receiving enough recuperation time.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/dailydose/ ... pbox_links

Would you donate an organ to your boss?
04 25, 2012

A kidney donor has been making headlines this week after filing a complaint with the New York State Human Rights Commission against her former employer; the donor, Debbie Stevens, claims she was fired soon after donating a kidney to a network that allowed her boss to move to the top of the waiting list.

Stevens has told various media outlets that she has no regrets about donating the organ but was fired after she complained about the way the company treated her when she was still recuperating from the transplant surgery last year: pushing her to return to work too quickly, transferring her to another location, and ultimately, letting her go.

Her boss, Jackie Brucia, told CBS News, “She did a wonderful thing for me. I wish her the best.” Atlantic Automotive Group in West Islip, NY, where Stevens worked, called the filed complaint a “groundless claim.”

What’s troubling to me, however, is how a workplace could allow employees to put themselves in this position in the first place. Bosses aren’t allowed to ask for dates, so why should they be able to ask for organs?

“There’s a huge power differential between boss and employee,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. “You have to make sure there’s no coercion.” If Stevens, for example, was told she’d need to donate her kidney to retain her job or obtain a promotion, that would be illegal.

If she gave her organ willingly, however, Caplan doesn’t see an ethical or legal problem.

“Strangers rarely donate organs to others when they’re still living,” he added, “so most organ donations are based on complicated relationships.”

Should a pastor encourage a church member to donate to another member of his flock? Should a child who donates an organ to a parent expect to be rewarded through a hefty inheritance? What about that husband who sued his ex-wife for the return of his kidney after he found out she was having an affair?

He didn’t win.

“Gift givers, including those who donate organs, have to go in with their eyes open,” Caplan said. “They need to understand that they may get gratitude or may not.” And the donation comes with no guarantees like job security or a lifelong relationship with the organ recipient.

Most likely, Caplan said, the ethics complaint will be dismissed, but Atlantic Automotive Group may decide to proffer a settlement in the meantime just to get rid of the publicity.

What do you think? Should companies allow employees to donate organs to their bosses?

[Hype]

You shouldn't donate an organ to your boss. It's pretty simple, really. You shouldn't be friends with your boss either, for the same reason. The boss-employee relation isn't one that even in principle could be constituted by equals qua the positions, nor is it one in which the employee could ever, qua employee, wield more power than the boss. As a result, employees should never treat their bosses like equals, nor like friends (who are, generally speaking, equals, qua friendship, if it's true friendship), nor like strangers who need help. Because of the necessary power imbalance, you ought to do nothing for your boss save what the job requires of you. If you go beyond this, via that, you've ceased to hold a strict boss-employee relation with that person, and so you should expect things like this to occur.

[Jasper]

Hype, I understand what you're saying, but imo you're a bit of an extremist with things of this nature. I'm speaking of the friendships and such, not the kidney donation.

[Larry B.]

I must agree with Hype. Personally, I have a very strong work ethic, which includes not being friends with my clients nor my colleagues. Basically, I think things 'get weird' when you become a friend with someone for/with whom you work. In fact, that's also the reason why I don't mess around with women who are friends of friends. I'd only start something with a friend of a friend if I knew that I'd become something serious. I've done it twice, and both times it led to a long-term relationship.

In my opinion, friendship with a boss or a client is a solid path to problems.

[Jasper]

Meh. I've had many friendships with people who've been underlings, and those friendships remain years after having left the place of business. So, I can't say I give a fuck about this inflexible philosophy as it relates to my life. It depends upon the venue and the individuals. I think this is definitely a lot more pertinent to big corporations, government venues, patient/doctor situations, and so on.

[clickie]

if one of my employees gave me an organ she'd be on my staff until the ship went down...

[creep]

hype and larry b come off on these boards as not really liking people whether they are your employer or your neighbor. i've always been friends with coworkers, subordinates and bosses that i like and remain friends with many to this day.

[Hype]

Meh. I've had many friendships with people who've been underlings, and those friendships remain years after having left the place of business. So, I can't say I give a fuck about this inflexible philosophy as it relates to my life. It depends upon the venue and the individuals. I think this is definitely a lot more pertinent to big corporations, government venues, patient/doctor situations, and so on.

That's really what I had in mind. There are obviously going to be LUCKY exceptions to the rule... but these are not maxims to live by.

[Hype]

hype and larry b come off on these boards as not really liking people whether they are your employer or your neighbor. i've always been friends with coworkers, subordinates and bosses that i like and remain friends with many to this day.

It's not about not liking people... it's about recognizing a pre-existing power structure that will affect your relationship whether you think it will or not...

[dali]

hype and larry b come off on these boards as not really liking people whether they are your employer or your neighbor. i've always been friends with coworkers, subordinates and bosses that i like and remain friends with many to this day.

^ this

That medical ethics professor in the article sounds like the biggest asshole in the world (imo "assholes" should never be "ethics" professors, it's like a conflict of interest), as do hype and larry b in this thread.

BTW, Didn't Will Smith already make a movie about this?



Damn you Will Smith, always making something years before it becomes relevant. lol

[Hype]

hype and larry b come off on these boards as not really liking people whether they are your employer or your neighbor. i've always been friends with coworkers, subordinates and bosses that i like and remain friends with many to this day.

^ this

That medical ethics professor in the article sounds like the biggest asshole in the world, as do hype and larry b in this thread.

BTW, Didn't Will Smith already make a movie about this?

[img][http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... jpg/220px-[/img]

Damn you Will Smith, always making something years before it becomes relevant. lol

How about I fuck you in your stupid racist face for not knowing what the fuck you're talking about?

[Hype]

Hype, I understand what you're saying, but imo you're a bit of an extremist with things of this nature. I'm speaking of the friendships and such, not the kidney donation.

Please explain what the fuck that even means. I wasn't speaking of friendships. I was speaking specifically about the boss-employee relation.

[dali]

How about I fuck you in your stupid racist face for not knowing what the fuck you're talking about?

What an academic, educated, articulated and well reasoned response.

[Hype]

How about I fuck you in your stupid racist face for not knowing what the fuck you're talking about?

What an academic, educated, articulated and well reasoned response.

You don't deserve anything resembling any of those things.

[dali]

How about I fuck you in your stupid racist face for not knowing what the fuck you're talking about?

What an academic, educated, articulated and well reasoned response.

You don't deserve anything resembling any of those things.

keep fighting common sense with all those books.

How's that working out for you?

[Hype]

Well.

[Jasper]

Hype, I understand what you're saying, but imo you're a bit of an extremist with things of this nature. I'm speaking of the friendships and such, not the kidney donation.

Please explain what the fuck that even means. I wasn't speaking of friendships. I was speaking specifically about the boss-employee relation.

You said that bosses and subordinates should not be friends. I was speaking to that, not to the issue of organ donation.

[Hype]

Hype, I understand what you're saying, but imo you're a bit of an extremist with things of this nature. I'm speaking of the friendships and such, not the kidney donation.

Please explain what the fuck that even means. I wasn't speaking of friendships. I was speaking specifically about the boss-employee relation.

You said that bosses and subordinates should not be friends. I was speaking to that, not to the issue of organ donation.

They can be friends, and in particular cases, it may work out just fine, but the power-relations that define the positions preclude any kind of axiomatic endorsement of it being okay to be friends with your boss.

[dali]

They can be friends, and in particular cases, it may work out just fine, but the power-relations that define the positions preclude any kind of axiomatic endorsement of it being okay to be friends with your boss.

What are you, a dock worker employer in the 1920's?
Times HAVE changed. We don't employ child labor, we don't employ slave labor. Guess what, it's 2012, you can be friends with your boss and vice versa.

There is no RULE that says otherwise and it CAN work, despite your "black and white" belief.

Typical Jew: rule the underlings. And you people wonder why society views you that way.

[Hype]

It's okay Dali, you can misunderstand my points, I forgive you.

[clickie]

hypes logic is pretty solid on this one...that doesnt mean theres not a few instances in every work force where it didnt hurt or even paid off becoming close friends with the boss.

[Hype]

http://www.iww.org/en/culture/official/preamble.shtml

Preamble to the IWW Constitution
Posted Sun, 05/01/2005 - 9:34am by IWW.org Editor

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

[dali]

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism.

But I am a socialist and to be called a socialist in America is a dirty word.

That's why it's so confusing, that you, from a socialistic country are defending Capitalism. Doesn't make sense.

A socialistic employer would never fire an organ donating employee while they recouperate.

[Hype]

You're reading me backwards, somehow, Dali. I'm a hardcore socialist. I have argued for ultra-radical socialism IN WRITING.

[Larry B.]

But I am a socialist